Tuesday, 28 May 2013

Garden Dominoes ...

Just when you thought there wasn't anything left to make with bits of pallet...

Technically I meant to do this last summer, but have only just got round to finishing it (seems there's a lot of that here) using the various off cuts from various pallet related builds (chicken coops and such like) I made a game for the kids to play in the garden, that game being dominoes.

A simple but fun game, that my daughter already seems to have a lot of luck at (she wins most games)

Here's the finished set -

A bit rustic, but still just as much fun.

As I said these are just off cuts, that I've made roughly the same length (6 inches or 15cm if you prefer) and each is roughly 3 inches wide (7.5cm) and there are 28 tiles in all, I gave them a sand first as they were a little rough.

Using a list I printed out from wikipedia - here (opens in new window) so I could remember what numbers each tile needed I set about marking them out ready for drilling.

It didn't take long to mark the tiles out -

Much marking to be done.

Basically I divided the tiles in half then in each square I marked a cross, then on the cross I made a point for the drill bit to locate in, on all the tiles the holes are roughly an inch (2.5cm) apart, except the tiles with six holes, these holes are half an inch apart (1.25cm) and for the hole I used a 10mm drill bit in my post drill, using a hand drill would be just as easy, just don't go all the way through, although that would work too.

Tiles marked, you can see where each hole will go -

A simple set of marks.

Once each tile was marked out I then took the lot to my shed and set about drilling holes, using the post drill is handy as it has a depth guide on it, which means I didn't end up drilling all the way through the tiles, I also used a saw, again with a depth guide to mark the halfway line that divides each tile.

Holes drilled, lines sawn -

Ready for painting.

Next I figured I'd paint the holes (of which there are many) with a bit of black paint, just so they are more obvious, and as these are meant for use outside I will probably give them a coat of linseed oil, just to make them last a bit longer.

All done -

Much easier to see what the numbers are.

Time for a game -

Table is just as good as outside apparently.

I even made a wooden box to keep them in, it needs a bit of a sand though -

And there you have it, easy to make, great to play on a sunny day in the garden, what could be more civilised ? any wood would do for this, I just had a load of bits lying around, but you could pick up a cheap piece of wood from your local diy shop, I've also been instructed to make a Jenga set as well, and if you do have pallets for a project remember to keep the blocks, they make great building blocks for the garden, in fact I wrote a short post about that very thing - heavy duty wooden building blocks (opens in new window)